Sales by Acker Merrall & Condit, Christie’s International,
Sotheby’s, Zachys and Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., excluding
Internet business, raised $322 million with fees this year, down
from the record $397 million achieved at equivalent events in
2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Buying from China, the main driver of growth in the
international trade for fine wines, was sluggish in the first
three quarters of 2012, reversing the rises of 14 percent and 75
percent posted by the same five auction houses in 2011 and 2010.

“China has been a sleeping giant for most of the year,”
Miles Davis, partner at London-based Wine Asset Managers, said
in an interview. “It feels as if it’s gently waking now. We’ve
recently had some big orders from Asia and prices have fallen
far enough for business to pick up across the board.”

Demand revived in the last two months of this year,
following the selection of a new leadership in Beijing in
November and perceptions that the prices of certain Bordeaux
vintages -- such as 2000 and 2005 -- had once again become
attractive, dealers said.

Christie's Record

Still, by the end of the year Hong Kong accounted for 44
percent of all sales at the five leading companies, making it
once again the biggest international auction center.

This year, London-based Christie’s raised $87.7 million
with fees from its auction-room events, including the 152nd
Hospices de Beaune charity auction, down 5 percent on 2011.
Excluding Beaune, it sold $80.1 million, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. Christie’s in addition held three
Internet sales totaling $1.42 million.

Figures, subject to confirmation by the auction house in
January, were bolstered by the 4.2 million pounds ($6.7 million)
at its 1,470-lot London sale on Dec. 13-14, a record for any
“various-owners” offering in the U.K. capital, Christie’s
said.

About 27 percent of the entire year’s sales from the five
houses were generated in November and December. The Beaune
auction, held in collaboration with Christie’s on Nov. 18,
raised a record 5.9 million euros ($7.6 million).

Hart, Sotheby's

New York-based Acker took $76.7 million through the auction
rooms, down 25 percent on 2011, and a further $6.65 million
through Internet sales, making its auction total $83.32 million.
Zachy’s raised $66.4 million, down 16 percent.

Burgundy was the biggest mover of 2012, routinely
supplanting Bordeaux in post-auction lists of top 10 prices.

Stellar sums were paid for wines from the cult Vosne-Romanee maker Henri Jayer, who died in 2006.

Jayer’s Cros Parantoux, from a 2.5-acre premier cru
vineyard that was an artichoke field in World War II, acquired
trophy status after a case of the 1985 vintage from his private
cellar fetched a record HK$2.06 million ($265,645) at Christie’s
Hong Kong in February.

Jayer Prices

Jayer captured the top six prices at Sotheby’s Dec. 12 sale
in London, led by the 42,300 pounds paid by an Asian bidder for
six bottles of Cros Parantoux from the 1990 vintage, estimated
at 26,000 pounds to 34,000 pounds.

Though high prices for Burgundy makers such as Jayer and
the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti set headlines, the market for
fine wines, both at auction and in the trade, continues to be
dominated by Bordeaux.

Bordeaux represents more than 80 percent of the
international wine trade, according to the London-based Liv-ex
database of daily dealer sales. Demand remains little changed.
The website’s Fine Wine 50 Index, monitoring sales of the 10
most recent vintages of the region’s five First Growths, stood
at 299 on Dec. 17, 10.4 percent down for the year, said Liv-ex.

Asian Boom

“Auction prices for the top Bordeaux wines have dropped
between 20 percent and 50 percent over the last 18 months,”
David Elswood, Christie’s International Director of Wine, said
in an interview. “The market for some chateaux like Lafite went
crazy and was making up most of the unsold lots at auctions.
Levels have been adjusting to the ‘Asia effect’ and sensible
buyers have taken over again.”

At Hart’s Dec. 8 auction in Chicago, a case of a case of
1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild raised $33,460. In October 2010,
at the height of the Asian wine boom, a case of this same wine
sold for a record HK$1.03 million ($132,700) at Sotheby’s, Hong
Kong.

In addition to speculative Asian buying of first growths
such as Chateau Lafite, confidence in the Bordeaux market has
also been battered by ambitiously priced “en primeur”
campaigns for the 2010 and 2011 vintages.

“Trading conditions are going to continue to be
challenging,” Elswood said. “We’re not expecting any upturn in
the Bordeaux market in the first half of 2013. People look to
those wines for a sense of assured value. If we get another
over-priced en primeur campaign we could have a serious
problem.”

(Scott Reyburn and Guy Collins write about the art and wine
markets for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg
News. Opinions expressed are their own.)

Muse highlights include Richard Vines on food, Martin
Gayford on art, Amanda Gordon’s Scene Last Night and James
Russell on architecture.